CANDIDATE TO REPRESENT THE PEOPLE OF THE 30TH

STERLING HEIGHTS | UTICA | SHELBY TOWNSHIP

By reigning in political corruption and corporate greed, I believe we can restore our rights to economic freedom and self-governance and help Michiganders vastly improve their quality of life with better roads, better schools, and better opportunities. 

The American Dream

The American Dream depends on two things: (1) the right to govern ourselves and (2) the freedom to build our own lives. When our founding fathers rebelled against tyranny and established this great nation, they understood that democracy -- the right of citizens to determine their own laws and futures -- was paramount to the well-being of the People. They also knew that a citizen’s well-being depended on economic freedom -- the freedom of an individual to fairly pursue business and fortune as he or she sees fit. These two elements were critical in our development as a nation and led to our rise as the world’s preeminent cultural, economic, technological, and military power.

Today, those two features -- the features critical to our way of life -- are under attack.

In Michigan, politicians control our democracy, not us. Through gerrymandering, we see politicians handpicking their voters instead of voters electing their representatives. In 2016, Democrats won more votes for the state house, but Republicans still claimed 63 out of 110 seats. And those same politicians want to hide their tracks by keeping us in the dark. By exempting the governor and lawmakers from the Michigan Freedom of Information Act, we can never see their emails and find out what your elected officials are up to. Hiding behind this wall, Michigan politicians make beneficial sweetheart business deals with companies in exchange for favorable laws. By passing the new super PAC law, Michigan politicians made sure they would answer to the highest bidder, not us. In fact, Michigan is ranked dead last in the country in ethics, transparency, and accountability. It has gotten so bad that one current candidate for governor is shamelessly using our taxpayer money to pay his campaign staff.

In Michigan and all over the country, large corporations, the big banks, and the rich control the economy. Our wages rarely go up and layoffs continue while CEOs and shareholders amass more and more money. We can’t even sue big banks when they take advantage of us. Monopolies like Comcast block competition, raise prices, and buy politicians off to strip the only rules stopping them from ending the free and open internet. The DeVos family continues to pillage Michigan’s education system while our children’s scores -- and futures -- plummet. While the opioid epidemic claims lives in Macomb County, pharmaceutical companies continue to peddle opioid pills and jack up the costs of life-saving overdose medication. While poisonous lead leaches into Flint’s drinking water, Nestlé pumps 130 million gallons of pure Michigan groundwater every year for $200. Yes, you read that correctly -- Nestlé pays us a total of $200 to take 130,000,000 gallons of our precious water that they then sell for billions in profits.

All of this is incredibly frustrating. This is not the way any of this is supposed to work. So, I understand why you’re discouraged and losing faith in the system -- it just feels rigged.

But, here is the good news: we can fix this.

We can hold these politicians accountable and take back our government. We can fight corporate power wielded by greedy billionaires and return the economy back to us. It won’t be easy, but if we do those things, we’ll win back our way of life - the American Dream.